Retribution
by Nutbrain
Summary: Volkner's recovering, struggling to contain his emotions. Flint's barely coping. Johto E4's Will sanity is broken leaving those around him to pick up the pieces. But all the E4 and their pokemon may not be enough to put Will back together again.
1. Chapter 1

Sorry for the wait! This took a while. But I'm sure you guys figured that out =D You have to people to thank for this being out this soon:

Legend of Zelda 4 life

and

Pokemondude

Yup. This chapter has taken so long because I wanted to meet the high expectations. Plus some of your reviews influenced how the story's now going. So you only have yourselves to blame...

* * *

The cool sea air felt good on his face as the skimmer sped along. Volkner had always liked the sea, and was more than happy to hear that the place he would be moving to would be by the ocean. At least, after he discovered his rank in the league. He could remember when Lance had told him what was going on like it was yesterday, though it had been well over a week.

_"So how does that sound?" Lance was sitting on the uncomfortable little chair that was placed next to Volkner's bed. The Champion's long legs were stretched out leisurely and resting on the edge of the blonde's mattress, just below the safety rail. The electric trainer felt a little embarrassed that he hadn't really had a chance to get a shower._

_"That sounds amazing! But," Volkner had been hesitant, "what's the catch?" _

_"Nothing, besides the simple fact that you're going to be battling your way through the league currently established to determine your place. But they're amazing. The most advanced league for pokemon trainers I've ever seen, and that's saying something. Plus the Champion is amazing. Her pokemon saved your butt once already and she wasn't even there!" Talking about this new champion, Lances eyes took on a rather dreamy look._

_"How exactly was it that you got them to let me in?"_

_"Let's just say I have connections." Volkner quirked an eyebrow. "Okay, okay, I know the champion. She was here taking care of you for those three weeks but had to go back. She offered you the job knowing your potential. Apparently she watched you battle back when you were in Sinnoh."_

_"Oh, I see. So when are we going there?"_

_"As soon as the doctors release you!"_

Lance had flown ahead to meet him. At least, he'd flown ahead to the island the boat was set to meet with the dragon trainer. Apparently, the only pokemon that were able to fly in the gales that rocked the air were the native flying pokemon and pokemon that had trained here for quite some time. Needless to say, that wasn't one of Lance's pokemon.

Volkner was going to miss home. He realized this as an aching sensation made its way through his chest. He'd miss the way the solar panels had such a unique color to them at the sunset- that bluish red that glittered, warped, and reflected the puffy clouds as they sailed by. He'd miss how the waves were so magnificent at sunset, dyed a deep maroon and orange color where the crest would roll over to meet the water below, while the sea green danced with foam. The electric trainer sighed. At least he had retrieved all his pokemon, including Luxray. Actually Volkner had feared that he'd lost his pokemon for good, but Galactic had just thrown them under a bush. Flint had dropped them all off.

"_Here's your pokemon Volkner! There all happy to see you!" The blond glanced at them, grabbed them, and avoided eye contact with the red head completely, acting as if they had just been floating there._

"_So, any plans?" Silence. "Um, oh here! I wrote down a bunch of numbers just in case you lost your phone or something crazy like that." Still silence. Flint sighed. "Look Volk, I'm really sorry. Can we just, err, apologize and make-up? Do at least get an answer?"_

"_No."_

"_No to the apologizing or no to the answer?" Flint smirked. Volkner finally looked at him and glared._

"_Get out now."_

"_But Volk…" Flint reached out to touch him on the shoulder._

"_GET OUT! I DON'T EVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!"_

Volkner really wasn't that sorry about the way he reacted.

Then, thinking of reactions, Volkner thought of that poor psychic trainer that Flint had hospitalized. Apparently he was alive and could still function. He just sometimes acted far away, often letting his mind wander. Now that Volkner thought about it, Flint was really good at screwing up people's lives. Maybe he should do that for a living after he's finally pushed out of the league by the young trainers coming up.

"LAND HO!" The sailor seem quite happy. It had been a rough trip with lots of storms and all manner of things that messes with a person's stomach. Volkner might like the sea, couldn't fathom why people would want to spend every day of their life on it.

The blond latched onto his arm like some short of horribly overgrown leech.

"I'm sorry! I'm bad with names. What did you say yours was again?" Gosh this girl was an addle brained dolt. He'd seen slowpoke who were more up to speed.

"Kronus. Like the Greek god Cronus. Only my name's spelt with a 'K' instead of a 'C'."

"Oh, I understand. So where are we going for dinner tonight…Kranos." The way she pronounced his name made sound more like cranberry breakfast cereal than a Greek god's name. _'Cran-o's? Please.'_

If it wasn't for the sake of the mission…well he probably would have strangled her. Then again…No, too risky. Though…hmmm it was quite possible…No, don't even entertain the idea. Divert your thoughts for the sake of all you stand for!

"So Maybelene where did you want to go?" Please not…

"How about 'Muncho's'? That place has my faaaaavorite cookies and burgers." How those two even went together he didn't know. And her high pitched baby voice was- eww. It was murder to the ears. For the past eight dates that was where they went.

"Alright. Let's go then…"

It took another half hour for the skimmer to actually get to port and then another ten to get docked. The blonde wasn't quite sure if that was the correct term, but he honestly didn't care.

The ship yard was rather busy. The bustle of activities caused a small roar of noise as ships were unloaded, decks swabbed, wares sold and packaged, while women moved to the fresh fish stalls to buy dinner or socialize. It was all very different from Sunnyshore.

"Hey Volkner! Over here!" Volkner glanced around trying to pinpoint the location of the person who called his name. The voice rang out again, this time louder. Someone started waving to him. At least he hope they were waving to him and not someone else.

As the electric type got closer he got a clear view of the person, a woman, who was calling his name. She looked shorter than him by about an inch. Clad in all black she vaguely reminded him of Cynthia. But that's just about where the similarities stopped. Her skin was a pale color stark against her clothes, but she made it look better than Cynthia ever could. Her shirt was fairly tight, but looked more like it worked more like spandex. Tight but aloud the wearer to move freely. The pants were slightly baggy but were made of an extremely tough material. Much like the fabric the Pokemon Rangers used for their pants. They especially enforced the ranger idea with all its handy pockets. The cape she wore looked an awful lot like Lance's, except minus the flashy read lining (Volkner wondered if they shopped at the same store for that or if it was just a gift from Lance).

The smile that lit up her face gave it a more girlish look and to the edge off of her eyes that look as if they'd just been chipped of some unfortunate glacier. Should this girl be the champion he was supposed to meet (which he was pretty sure she was), Volkner could see why Lance would be crushing on this girl. She looked stunning and in excellent condition.

"Volkner! Hi! Lance says he's going to be a little late, so if you want to get lunch we can go right on ahead." She gave him that dazzling smile of hers.

"Um, sure. Lance didn't say anything about meeting you so…" The blonde trailed off unsure of what to do. He figured she was the champion, but with Lady Luck giving him swirlies in the toilet-of-perpetual-bad-luck, he really did not want to get this wrong.

"Oh, I apologize! I really do have manners, I just seemed to have forgotten them." She blushed and offered out her hand. "My name's Moonshadow Grey. I'm the resident Champion of this region." Volkner took the offered hand.

"Volkner Surge. Ex-gym leader of Sinnoh at your service." The little part about the gym leader stung his pride, but for the sake of a new job…He shifted nervously on the planks of the dock a wingull screeching somewhere above.

"Well, let's not stand here all day, eh?" She made a gestures that told him to follow and was off, expertly weaving through the crowd as if it wasn't even there. Volkner didn't have that kind of luck. By the time he got through he had knock over five people, a barrel of fish, and had nearly gotten himself smacked in the forehead by a rather large log being transported through the air via pulley system.

After the blonde finally cleared the mass of people, he found Moonshadow to be quite a ways ahead and had to run to catch up. She peered back over her shoulder and flashed Volkner a smile that made him think that she had been watching the whole thing. The black haired woman giggled and quickened their pace.

The city was a rustic one, with stone buildings and wooden signs. On almost every window sill was a flower box with a delicious aroma coming from them. Pies cooled on some of the open windows, while the bakers aforementioned pies cleaned house. Throughout the whole place the sea could be heard side by side with the sounds that naturally accompanied a large amount of people. For most of the walk they were next to the sea on a cobble/

Just as they were passing a darkened alley (unnaturally dark, Volkner noted) an umbreon drifted out of the shadows where its black body had been virtually unnoticeable in the shadows. The moonlight pokemon put its body in between Volkner and Moonshadow. His hand was already on his pokeball by the time it emerged. Umbreon readied itself for a fight, dropping into its signature stance. The electric trainer noted that this pokemon was larger than any he'd seen at home by at least an inch or two. It let out a piercing growl, and Volkner threw his pokeball. Right as it was about to open a violet aura encompassed the small ball and prevented the pokemon from coming out. There was a small patter of feet and Volkner jumped just in time to avoid having his legs slammed out from underneath him.

The blonde's eyes narrowed and he tensed himself, rolling out off the way to avoid the psybeam attack that shot from the thing that had attacked him from behind. Volkner came to his knees in a ready position. The second pokemon was an espeon and it too was large for its breed. The umbreon growled again gathering darkness in its mouth. Volkner tried to move but found himself held down by that violet aura. The umbreon took only a moment longer to gather the darkness then readied itself to strike. And there wasn't a think Volkner could do about it.

When Will first woke up in the hospital he found someone stroking his hair. Not being sure of who – or what – it was he tried to shy away from it. Only to find that he couldn't move. That took a moment to process. _Process. What a funny word? Who came up with that word I wonder? What a strange word_. But it was more than not being able to just move. He was in pain all over. _Pain. Who had come up with the conscept? Given it a name, a definition?How queer._ But he still didn't know who was stroking his hair. _But it feels good. So good. To be cared for. Why bother wondering at all?_ Will's eyes cracked upon just enough to see a bright spotlight…_spotlight. Whatever was the light spotting? Him perhaps?_ and a blurry silhouette of a woman. She had long grey hair _grey? Maybe that was just a perception. Maybe to other people it was his blue, while to others it was his red._ The psychic trainer just wished his head would stop hurting enough to help him think clearly. _Clearly? What was clearly? His perception or a definite thing? Could clear be defined? _Will groaned.

"Oh Will! Your awake!" The noise of her noise vibrated through his eardrums and he wondered if she had a megaphone held against his ear. _Or did she? After all it _was_ possible…_

"Stop yelling please…" Will whispered. He knew he had whispered, but why did it sound like he had just yelled. _Perhaps he did just yell…Yell at the lady stroking his hair, something she probably wouldn't ever have done if she thought he was conscious._

"Will, oh gosh. I thought we'd lost you. We all did. I was so worried I got here as fast as you could. They didn't think you'd ever wake up." _Wake up? Why not? Don't normal people wake up? Was he not _normal_ enough for her?_ Will felt a growing anger in his stomach. He didn't know why but pushed away into the back of his mind like he always did. _Like he always did. One day the flood gates would open and then…_ Will finally recognized the sillouhette.

"Karen what happened?" She gave him a worried look. _But why, what was there to be worried about? Worried about his sanity?_

"Don't you remember what happened?" Karen looked worried and a little…relieved? What happened that was so horrible it would be a good thing to forget? Had Koga done something? _Koga the man tormented him every day. He would get back sometime wise men wait three years._ Will thought hard trying to remember everything that had happened. The last thing he remembered. The distress call. _Koga mad at him for interpreting it._ Them transporting to the coordinates given. _Koga infuriated for going to the right place._ The misunderstanding. _He wasn't a field agent, so he wouldn't understand._ The clearing up of things. _Koga employing him for a pillow to drop the girl on._ The vision. _Koga worried? Koga perhaps just wanted the information. He was originally from Team Rocket…_ And then…_And then that red-headed afro-ed freak…_ Flint. _Would pay dearly for what had happened._

It was one of those creepy sensations. The ones where the hairs on the back of your neck rise and your arms get those little bumps that crawl up them. Flint shivered. Sheez, he kept his room awfully cool lately…

He glanced around, looking for the thermostat. Not once before had he ever had to turn up the temp. His pokemon normally kept it nice and toasty. Flint supposed that perhaps Cynthia was still mad at him. She had managed to keep him out of jail and in the pokemon league. What lies she had told the authorities to keep him there, he probably wouldn't ever know. Wouldn't ever _want_ to know. Cynthia was scary when she had an objective.

But Lucian was even scarier. Granted, he had quickly gotten over what had happen to Volkner (if he had even cared to begin with) and Flint thought he had gotten over Will by simply dismissing him as a second rate practitioner. Unfortunately for Flint, the room he had used to question Will had happened to be Lucian's room. Ya, he had kind of mixed up priorities. Or was it that Lucian had dismissed the room and was still mad about Will? Flint shook his head, afro bouncing.

As Flint turned up the temp on the thermostat he had a feeling that something had just been in the room with him and just left. But, then again, maybe he was just paranoid…

Umbreon prepared to annihilate Volkner, plain and simple. The blond tensed his muscle as Umbreon's eyes grew red and then…the darkness just dissipated and the psychic pressure lifted slowly at first and then suddenly it was gone. Volkner sat up, wary of what had just happened.

"I apologize for them. They didn't recognize you and thought you were following me for some reason." Moonshadow smiled sheepishly, though in her eyes Volkner could see she was secretly laughing at him.

"Their…yours?" Volkner stood up shakily. The air had been knocked out of him.

"Yes. They're excellent guards. But don't let that fool you. Their main goal was to- in short- knock you on your butt and keep you there till I gave them the go ahead to take you out." The amusement in her eyes now crept into her smile.

"And you didn't see fit to tell them? Or do something sooner?" Volkner had had enough of these games. And he didn't l like being kept in the dark.

"Nope, she just likes to keep people on their toes." Somebody clapped in on the back from behind, laughing in a rich, almost dark way, highly amused by the whole situation. Volkner whirled around to see the Johto champion casually eating an apple.

"Take note, you didn't even hear me come up behind you. But don't get offended by it. She did the same thing to me when I first came to the town to meet her." Lance gave Volkner a knowing smile and plucked his pokeball out of the air and handing it back to Volkner. With that the espeon proceeded to rub itself against the Dragon Tamer's legs.

"You know Lance, you're going to lose your appetite."

"Pah." Moonshadow stuck her tongue out at him and sauntered off, cooly ignoring to two men behind her. Lance just chuckled beckoning Volkner to follow him.

Dearh Dieary,

Today my prehcess Kranos took me to 'Mewnchoes'. We had so mutch fuhn. The hole tihme he looked at me lihke he wahnted to be wright next to me. his eye whould twitch like he had too restrain hismelf like the Edwerd guy from those vAmpire movies Twilight or watevehr. He is juhst so cute! I wahnt to marry him! But today he told me under his breathe that I was an "Insuhfferable lihtle imbelcile." He's juhst so sweet not telling me he llikes me that mutch to myh face.,

Sihgned

Maybelene =D A smileh 4 u.

The small group had been seated at the rather busy restaurant. Volkner got the distinct feeling that had Moonshadow and Lance not been champions they probably wouldn't have gotten a seat till late next week.

It was pretty here. The waves made small roaring sounds as they threw themselves against the pillars that held the deck of the restaurant up. The sun danced and wove through the cerulean waters making shapes and casting shadows. The blond could see the barest outlines of fish as they swam through the waters.

"So Lance, why was it you were so late?" Moonshadow asked casually, drinking her ice tea. Though Volkner wondered if it could even still be called tea since she had poured at least ten packets of sugar in it.

"Late? As if. But I _was_ slightly held up by something." Lance quirked an eyebrow at her and smiled. He barely managed to resist propping his feet up on the table. Moonshadow gave him a look that said she knew what he was about to do.

"Okay Mister Lance. Why were you _slightly_ held up?"

"Well, there was an incident where some kid, Barry something-or-other was bothering a group of Aquas telling them that he was going to fine them a million dollars if they didn't give him directions. And well, you know how Team Aqua is. Never accepting threats. In short they attempted to feed him to the fishes."

"What kind of fishes, and what stopped their attempt." Moonshadow asked politely.

"Well they were Sharpedoes and Carnahva. As of yet I'm not quite sure what kept them from eating him, their next attempt would have been drowning. Which to be honest to you, if I wasn't on duty I would have help them with. When I pulled him out of the water, he started telling me he was going to fine me if I didn't get him dried off. So I dumped him back in." Moonshadow giggled, Lance chuckling at his own story.

"Well I can probably tell you why they wouldn't eat him." The two quirked eyebrows. "He's so foul, he wasn't worth the aftertaste." Moonshadow started laughing, losing her balance and falling on her back.

"Ow."

)()()()()()()()()(

"Well Volkner here's the plan. You challenge all the gyms as if you were taking a league challenge You're given the same resources as any other trainer taking the challenge. You are a loud two tries at each gym. After you have used you two tries. You will remain at that level. Should you lose to the third gym leader, you well become the third gym leader and the rest will move up. Should you beat the eight, you will become the new eight gym leader."

"Should I lose to the first?"

"I would expect better of you, but should you lose to the first, the rest will be bumped up. And in actuality, you'll only be battling seven gym leaders, because our twins have combined. Clear?"

"Crystal." Moonshadow smiled.

"Excellent. Let the games begin."

Will was finally able to come home. The doctors announced that his condition was stable enough to be able to be on his own without having to be subject to the use of a defibrillator. Koga couldn't even count all the times he had thought they would lose their youngest member. The poison type trainer realized that he was a little harsh at times to the psychic.

There was a nagging little worry in the back of his mind. He didn't know why but it had started with the nurses at the hospital told him that the young man had been muttering strange things in his sleep. When Koga had asked what kind of strange things the nurse frowned deeply, looked up at him, and simply said "I don't quite remember." He hadn't pushed her for anymore, though he didn't quite know why.

_YOU KNOW YOU NEED ME!_

Will woke with a start. Something had been stirring in his mind. He shook it away with a little effort, pushing it to that same dark corner.

"Will, are you alright? You were muttering in your sleep." Karen looked worried.

"What was I muttering." Karen bit her lower lip wondering what to say.

"You were…" Will waited expenctantly.

"I don't remember anymore…" Karen frowned. _Memory. What are memories but a thing I can toy with?_

* * *

So how did you like that ending? Crazy Will is your fault. All yours. Yup.

Oh, and don't worry too much. The champion doesn't show up all that frequently because I would really prefer to use all game/comic verse characters.

And Pokemondude requested that Barry be in here. So I included him yup.

Oh, also. I had Lv100Meganium (I hope I spelt that correctly...=D) has offered to beta. For the next few, I think I'll take her up on that.

Virtual cookies to anyone who manages to figure out who "Cran-o's" (a healthy part of a complete breakfast) is. If you can't I shall tell you!

P.S.: I shall probably be telling everyone the story's up, because I think (don't quote me on this) that someone asked me to put the name up on my Exiled chap, and if you're like me you forget about something for a while! =D

Thanks so much for all your support! Please review! =D


	2. Chapter 2

Wow, this took a lot longer than I was expecting. In my defence I've been really busy, and I tried to edit this really well. I've made it a point to kind of explain some of the reviewer's questions in here (though they're probably not still reading cause it took so loooooooooooong ^^;) Oh well, better late than never!

**Hope you enjoy!**

**Wilderness- Unknown Continent**

Volkner was, once again, making his way through a bog/marsh/muddy hole of decaying filth. As his foot sunk deeper into the disgusting goop, Volkner was wishing he'd spent another night in the area by the first gym he had challenged. It had been a nice place, tucked away in the side of a large hill that bordered on being a small mountain.

The gym leader had been polite. Volkner guessed she was probably somewhere around 20, though she acted younger than that even. She had worn a blue dress that came down about mid thigh that would have been consider slightly skimpy if it wasn't for the long, white, sleeveless coat she chose to wear over it. Her earrings bobbed and her blond hair had bounced up and down happily as she answered the door (for some reason there wasn't a place here that had an automatic door). The girl introduced herself as Molly. When asked if she was the gym leader she had given a little laugh and blushed. _'Of course!' _she had said. From the conversation that ensued, Volkner was able to gather that the person that judged the pokemon matches was out and would be returning promptly, though it was hard to tell through the stuttering and blushing. Though he must have heard the word 'promptly' wrong, or else she had a different definition of the word, because it took somewhere around five hours for him to show up.

The man who did show up gave a twirl of his white cloak, announcing himself as the famous Eusine, hunter of the legendary dog Suicune. Volkner immediately determined him a fruitcake from his frilly purple outfit, enormous ego, and his ridiculously dramatic persona.

The rules were explained clearly. It would be a standard three on three battle, but there was an extra rule tossed in about a one hour time limit. If Volkner hadn't defeated at least one pokemon he automatically lost and if he wasn't ahead when the time stopped he would also lose.

When the battle commenced Molly sent out a Teddiursa and he sent out his ever faithful Luxray. The pokemon had squared off. Luxray had been the first one to land a hit with a swipe of her paw that caught the small bear off guard after the electric pokemon had used crunch. That was when Eusine started up. It started off as a comment about how if that had been Suicune battling it would already have won this battle. Then Molly was enraged about the fact that had it been Entei, he would have already scared all the challengers away. Teddiursa had stood there staring. Volkner politely waited for the girl to resume the match again. After about ten minutes, Volkner decided he had a clock to contend with, so he ordered Luxray to take out the adorable little furball. Granted he had felt bad about it, but not bad enough to risk losing the match.

Molly had barely taken notice and randomly threw out another pokemon only to resume the argument. This time is was a minute Flaaffy. It looked slightly stressed, but it seemed that this was a norm. Volkner waited for the argument to end. It was about five minutes til the end of the allotted hour when Volkner decided it would be best if he just ended the battle. Molly had stopped her argument after finally realizing she had been defeated. She handed him a badge and offered him a place to stay. Volkner now wished that he hadn't declined that offer.

'_Why is it always some sort of muddy place?'_ He was having misgivings about this place, after what happened the last time he was stuck in an area like this. The trees kept out almost all the light as their vines bound them together while still hanging down ominously. The blond made sure to keep Luxray out of her pokeball just in case.

There was a squelching nose as one of Volkner's legs sunk down into the rotting earth. Another shriek reverberated somewhere to his right. Then some sort of hiss. He tugged harder on his leg.

"Luxray, look through the bushes please." His Luxray's eye's glowed red, momentarily illuminating the darkness making the surroundings even more frightening. Volkner's pulse raced as he tugged even harder on his leg.

"_Lux!"_ A bolt of yellow lightning completely lit up the surrounding forest, driving off all the lurking pokemon and temporarily blinding Volkner.

Then there was a chuckle from somewhere up above him.

"Who-who's there?" That couldn't be good. Volkner hadn't meant to sound so…scared. Though after what happened the last time. But still to stutter? Now that was dropping low, real low. He hadn't stutter since he was…

"Did you get it?" The voice was smooth and melodious. It was also accompanied by some sort of instrument being played softly. Luxray tensed prepared (hopefully) for whatever was up there.

"Who are you?" Volkner (happy that this time he managed not to stutter) tried again to pull his leg free but it only sank in deeper, dragging his right leg in along with it. The blond let out a cry of panic.

"You know, the more you pull the more it sucks you in. It's basically like quicksand." Volkner still couldn't tell where the voice was located at, but the person attached to it didn't seem to be going any great lengths to assist him.

"Thanks. Anymore great advice that doesn't really help?" Volkner glared up at the tree he thought might contain the person. The instrument (which Volkner had now decided was a guitar of some sort) was still playing.

"Yes. This isn't the route most trainers take to get to the second gym, but I suppose you aren't exactly the conventional type."

"I've been following this stupid map!" Volkner paused for a moment. "How did you know I was going to battle the second gym leader?" There was another low chuckle.

"I keep tabs on that sort of thing. Also, I wouldn't trust that map at all. The person who made it was terribly inebriated."

"You would know about that last part how?" Volkner was still trying to pull himself out of the earth with little success.

"Because…well, I believe I've stated this already. I keep tabs on that sort of thing" The strumming grew slightly louder and to more of a tune. There was a muted buzz and then something grabbed him by the shoulders. The mud made a hideous squelching sound as it relinquished its hold on the poor blond.

"Who are you…?" And with that he was unceremoniously dropped on the ground. But it was solid and fairly clean (as ground goes anyway) and Volkner almost have kissed it (almost, but not quite. That would have been his last shred of dignity flying out the window).

"The person who just saved you a lot of trouble." The man just let the amusement he was obviously feeling ripple through his voice.

"Why didn't you just do that from the start instead of sitting there talking about it?" Volkner glared at the same tree. He was sure this was where the voice was coming from.

"Lux!" Before Volkner could even get any words out he was picked off of the ground by a claw to the scruff of his neck.

"Ow, ow, ow! Put me down." Volkner reached up and struggled as Luxray gave a cry of surprise.

"What's the magic word?" There was a slight sound behind the blonde, and not coming from the tree he was glaring at. How embarrassing. Volkner glared and struggled some more, but that approach didn't seem to be getting him anywhere.

"Please?" He sighed, rolling his eyes. There was another chuckle from behind.

"Please what?" That melodious voice was almost laughing now.

"You know, you're getting a little redundant!"

"I am, really? But still, if you just say please, how am I supposed to know what you want?" The chuckling man was bound and determined to take the last little shreds of dignity from him. Volkner opened his mouth to tell him where he could shove his 'magic word' when after a light strumming of the guitar, he was dropped to dry ground once more.

"Scizor, Sciz." Volkner opened his eyes to a rather large a grinning Scizor looming over him along with a smiling white-haired male.

**Sunnyshore City- Sinnoh**

"So, my beautiful Maybelene, where would like to go to today?" 'Kronos' smiled widely. If he wasn't such an excellent actor…well if he wasn't, then it probably wouldn't matter anyways. She was obviously too thick to notice.

"How about 'Munchos'? It's been a while since we've been there together!" If it weren't for 'Kronos''s extreme dedication to Master Cyrus (after all he was still the top admin of the group), then he probably would have strangled the girl right then and there. '_For the love of all that's holy! We were just there for breakfast!'_

"Don't you have any other favorite places you'd like to take me to?"

"Oh, yes! We can go to the snow cone shack for snow cones!" 'Kronos' looked down at his hands. In one of them was a cup containing a perfectly full snow cone. Then he glanced at her hands, seeing the exact same thing. He quirked an eyebrow wondering how drunk the pokemon association and elite four were when they let this girl in.

"'Munchos' it is…" He sighed and shook his head, wondering if her mother had dropped her down three flights of stairs then accidently dropped her again after she had walked to the top of the stairs only to repeat the process once more.

**Elite Four HQ- Sinnoh**

Flint sighed, glancing out the window towards Sunnyshore. On a regular day like this he would have already been dragging Volkner towards the beach. It was awfully warm outside and Volkner would be complaining about the type advantage that Flint had in their battle, just to cover for himself if he lost. That's how it always worked. Volkner preserving his pride at all cost. That was what was the most important to him. That, and battling and countless hours of working with technology. But he had lost all but the last one. Maybe now he had even lost the last one (Flint only came to this realization after Lucian informed him that he wasn't actually certified to be a mechanic).

Flint sighed again, turning his back to the window. He didn't want to see it anyway. There wouldn't be any challengers to bother him for the next month or two. It was the off season, where trainers would prepare for the upcoming season in hopes of taking the Elite Four down. Though most of the time they failed to get past Aaron. Which was really sad, because, if he remembered correctly he was on par with that one psychic trainer from Johto… The psychic trainer he had nearly killed.

Flint ran a hand through his afro only to have it get caught in a tangle. He had really screwed up his life recently. Plus the fact the he had almost lost his life when- and he swore on his life this was true- a ninja had tried to assassinate him. When he told the rest of them, they just shook their head and smiled (in Bertha's case), glared (in Cynthia's and Lucians case [though he copied her so much it was hardly unexpected]), or just rolled their eyes and didn't care (in Aaron's case). Actually now that Flint thought about it, it did make sense. Not the eye rolling (though it wasn't like that was out of the ordinary…), it was the assassination by ninja attack. That Koga dude was a ninja wasn't he? Though he didn't exactly seem to like the little purple-haired little psychic guy all that much, Flint was pretty sure if he hadn't been otherwise restrained when they met in the hospital, the fire trainer probably would be a slightly acidic puddle somewhere.

The room started to swim for a moment, drifting woozily, then heating and cooling down. Someone, no, some_thing_, brushed his consciousness. Some short of psychic power, more powerful then he'd ever felt Lucian do when he wasn't in the room. But yet somehow it was at a distance. There was a horrible stabbing pain at his right side and he collapsed to his knees, then his side, holding his head in his hands. After a moment, the psychic power apparently couldn't stay any longer and receded, and Flint was left breathing heavy and groaning on the floor.

**Wilderness- Unknown Continent**

This Garret person was now leading the way, since he seemed to have a pretty good idea where dry ground was and where there wasn't dry ground. He'd introduced himself after helping Volkner off the ground, apologizing for his scizor's "unkind and socially unacceptable actions".

"So, you having fun thus far?" Garret glanced back over his shoulder, blowing a strand of white hair out of his blue eyes. Volkner had no idea how he kept his white shoes, over coat, pants, shirt, and tie in such an immaculate condition given how Volkner had mud splattered over everyone of the those clothing articles.

"Ya, sure. Because I just looooove wandering around in mud! It's my favorite pastime." Volkner intoned in a not so amused voice. Garret chuckled shaking his head.

"Well, I'm sure it doesn't exactly call to mind wonderful memories."

"No, not really…Wait a second. How did you know about that? I thought only a couple people were told…" Volkner frowned at the mud. That would mean more than just a few people knew what had happened. Well, at the moment it didn't matter if they knew he was constantly falling in the mud (though there was a nagging worry about that too).

"Only a few people were told. My sister, Moonshadow, informed me of it."

"Wait your sister? You look nothing alike!" Volkner was a little dumbfounded. They didn't share any resemblance.

"Adopted. Well, not officially, I highly doubt she'd ever want my father to call her a daughter. That would be downright awful. No, I've known her since I was very young. My family was raised here."

"Well, if she's not officially your sister, then did you grow up here? When I heard her name I figured names here would be a little different, but yours is pretty normal, and so was the first gym leader's name and her…friend's name."

"Raised here doesn't necessarily mean _born_ here. But the names here are abnormal. Those two from the gym are from Johto, and why they were allowed to come here is beyond me. But that's beside the point. The matter of names, well, it's like when you go to another country. They might speak the language, but you can't expect every culture to name their children the same way. A lot of the island cultures are this way." Volkner grunted. The silence drug on after that.

"So…what are you doing here?" Volkner finally asked.

"Looking for my other siblings. Though I have yet to have found them as you've probably gathered." Volkner grunted again.

"You have such brilliant replies. Wonderful conversationalist you are." Garret smiled as he heard another grunt from behind him, then a sudden cry of surprise followed by a loud 'oomph'. "Oops, I forgot to mention there was a hole there."

"You know what? You really suck."

**Indigo Plateau- Johto**

Will's head hurt again. And there was a time that he couldn't remember anything. Try as he might, he couldn't conjure up the memories of what he had done for the past hour. The last thing he remembered was how much Flint had gotten on his nerves. How he deserved to be in pain…and then nothing. Maybe he should ask Lance.

Will pushed himself into a sitting position, wincing as his head started pounding in a steady rhythm. He got shakily to his feet only to have them give out from underneath him. He fell to the floor with a loud crash.

"Will? I heard something, are you alright?" Karen glanced around, at first confused when she didn't see Will in bed. Then her eyes moved to the floor where he had collapsed. The platinum-haired woman slid to the ground next to him, dropping the clean clothes from her hands.

"Will, what happened?" Karen's eyebrows knit together in an expression of worry when a first the psychic trainer didn't make a sound. Then, Will made a disgusted noise.

"I tried to get out of bed and well…fell. I'm alright now, thank you Karen." Polite and reserved. Will was, at the moment, completely normal. She knew that soon, he would be that distant person with strange thoughts and musings. This was how it had been for the past week. She dared not to tell Koga or Lance. Koga would over react and there wasn't a thing Lance could do except worry.

"Karen, what happened?" A quiet voice came from the hallway. Karen wasn't surprised to see Koga standing there, withdrawn as ever. Why couldn't he just tell Will that he did care if he lived or died?

"Nothing! Nothing happened. I fell that's all. Clumsy as always. I'm fine now, see!" Karen glanced at him, worried. He'd always tried to please Koga, but now he shrunk away as if expecting to be hit. Koga just shook his head.

"You need to be careful. You'll hurt yourself." And with that Koga disappeared. The psychic trainer gave a sigh of…_relief. He was too observant, that ninja. He would have to be dealt with sooner or later. Reverting back to his old personality would not suit him much longer._

"Will, are you alright" _As if she even had to ask. With his new found psychic powers, he had her at his beck and call. Of course reverting to old Will was always dangerous, because something might slip. Slip. What a funny word. How easy it would be…_

"Will! Are you alright?"

"Yes Karen, I'm more than alright." _Now that he knew he could reach out far enough to…_

"Well I'm glad." Will caught her eye. She looked into it for a moment, then her eyes took on a hazy look.

"Now, this is what I want you to go do…"

As Will outlined part of his intricate, yet exceedingly simple plan, there was another listener outside the door. The poison-type trainer had only just confirmed what he had expected all along. But now, the only thing to do, was to decide how he was going to use this information.

**Ranger HQ- Almia**

Under normal circumstances, he would be sleeping. His legs were resting on the table in front of him, grey shoes gleaming nicely, and he had rocked back on the back two legs of his chair. With his cool, easy expression, you wouldn't know who was the one who actually worked here, if it were for the handcuffs around his slim, pale wrists.

"Ice! I believe I asked you a question!" The ranger, Sven if he recalled correctly, was growing extremely irritated now.

"And I believe I told you were you could put those questions of yours." Ice just smirked. These rangers were completely ridiculous. The cowboy wannabe glared from across the table.

"Luxray, if you could show him how we handle uncooperative rangers please?" Ice just quirked and eyebrow, still smiling.

"So, what's it this time? Boring me to death with your self-righteousness or am I just going back to my room?" The electric pokemon began to gather electricity. "Oh, now that's just ranger brutality."

"Too bad you're a criminal, huh?"

"Too bad you're too much of a pansy to do it, huh?" Ice drawled in a hillbilly accent, mocking the ranger's cowboy hat.

"Oh that's it!" The ranger was about to leap over the table to (presumably) strangle him.

"Sven, no! This isn't the correct course of action to take!" Sven settled back on his heels at the disapproving voice through the intercom.

"Bad doggie. Heel. Sit. Bark. Get a life." The ranger took a deep breath.

"Sveeen." The intercom intoned. Then the punch came, crashing across the young man's cheek. Ice, much to his credit, barely winced as the ranger withdrew his hand.

"That hurt your knuckles pansy-boy?"

"Shut up. And no. No it did not." Ice just rolled his eyes.

* * *

Admitedly, kind of a lame ending...I love making fun of characters.

Oh, and if you haven't picked up by now, the funny little italics are Will's 'alternate personality'. It's kind of the embodiment of his restrained melevolence all these years. Which is pretty scary. That combined with the fact that he can warp minds and reach across continents. Ya...

Well, please review and I hope you enjoyed it!


	3. Chapter 3

I'm sorry this took so long. I've been so busy though. I attempted to make it longer than they normally are, and I hope I've succeded! A big thanks to all my reviewers!

* * *

**Elite Four HQ- Johto**

The clack of boots echoed in the room, the only sound to be heard as the ninja frowned in thought. Pacing was a bad habit he had picked up during his time in Team Rocket, and he still couldn't bring himself to get rid of the nervous tic. Most of the time, the unceasing back and forth movement helped him clear his head as he thought of plans to bring down Team Rocket. But this time, the though behind the pacing didn't have anything to do with Team Rocket.

A clock somewhere declared in a resounding gong that it was one in the morning. Koga should have already been in bed. But tonight, he couldn't sleep. The anxiety was keeping him awake, gnawing at his insides, a strangely persistent force. After having overheard the conversation that had commenced between Will and Karen, the ninja was left with a deep feeling of unsettling that he couldn't shake no matter how many times he tossed and turned on his mattress.

The man stopped his pacing for a few moments to gaze out the window. A few clouds rolled on past, but the glowing sphere of the moon kept breaking through, refusing to relinquish its hold on the sky until the sun made its first appearance. The landscaping of the league was bathed in the moon's glow. The shadow's of the foliage and statuary flickered and writhed under the pale magnificence that was the moon. _'I could easily hide myself tonight,'_ the ninja thought as he scanned the courtyard, checking for a sign of any threat that might present itself. This was the sort of night were the shadows wreaked havoc with the eyes. And the phobias. There was a sharp tap on the door.

Koga slid a suspicious gaze to the seemingly harmless object of wood. There was no reason anyone should be calling at this hour, save an emergency. It was possible it could be a trap. There was another knock and an exasperated sigh.

"Koga, I know you're awake now will you open the-" The rest was rather muffled, but Koga assumed it wasn't anything presentable to a class of small children. The poison-type user ghosted to the door, undoing the main lock, but jamming the door mostly shut with his foot as he opened it with a swoosh. It was rigged so if opened from the inside there was no sound. On the other hand, if opened from the outside, a squeal of metal on metal was sure to awaken even the most deep sleeping occupant of the room.

"What?" The ninja grunted through small crack in the door, glaring as the man on the other side shouldered his way in, nearly pushing the door overtop of Koga's foot till he was obliged to move it out of the way. The dragonmaster did a cursory glance of the room, assessing his surroundings. The room was clean, but a little on the Spartan side. Lance would be willing to bet his bottom dollar that there were weapons hidden in every nook and cranny. And probably in places where there wasn't. The ninja had an obsession with sharp, pointy things that could inflict bodily harm.

"You've been pacing since eleven thirty. What's going on?" The red head quirked an eyebrow, folding his arms over his well muscled chest. Even in teddy bear pajama bottoms and sleep (or lack of therefore) tousled hair, the champion still managed to make the gesture look dignified.

"Why ever are you wandering about without a shirt on? Aren't you worried about someone seeing?" The dragonmaster would almost never wear his pajamas out and about in case some nosy reporter made it the league building.

"No, but nice try Koga. You won't divert my attention that easily. No, what's going on?" Koga tried to think of what to say. He couldn't tell Lance just yet, after all, there wasn't a thing he could do about it except worry. Then again, he might have good advice, but Will's psychic powers had increased tenfold and if Will got wind of his plan being discovered, they'd both be in the same boat Karen was.

"Well I…" Koga was cut off as Lance's phone started singing Steve Miller Band's _'Abra, abracadabra, I wanna reach out and grab ya.' _Lance rolled his eyes and sighed. He couldn't figure out for the life of him how to change the ringtones set on his phone. The ringtone kept repeating itself as Lance dug around in his pocket, searching for the phone.

"What?" He snarled at the unlucky soul on the other end of the line. "Yes, well no.- Why can't you do it?- Well I don't know why not?- Yes, I suppose I can fly over there." Lance hung up with an upset jab. Koga just raised an eyebrow.

"Sabrina has a migraine and can't look into the report that just came in about Team Rocket. So it looks like I'll have to go over there and do it myself. But don't think this means I'll forget about this." When Lance was out of earshot, Koga let out a relieved sigh. Now he'd have time to come up with a decent story.

**Marsh- Unkown Region**

"Well, looks like we're just about clear of the marsh. I still haven't found my siblings, but they're big kids and can take care of themselves." Garret glanced over his should raising an accusatory eyebrow.

"Don't even say it!" Volkner had already taken enough of the comments about the fact that he wasn't old enough to take care of himself.

"Say what?" the white-haired man asked innocently. "Whatever could I be about to say that would upset you?" Volkner just rolled his eyes and continued to glare at the ground below him. Garret was right though. The mushy nutrient rich black soil was slowly giving way to a more normal looking light brown soil that stayed firmly in place when stepped on. That in itself was a big relief to the blond, who was covered in head to toe in mud. Literally. He'd been sand-attacked by an upset ground-type pokemon and promptly covered in muck. He wasn't sure if drop kicking pokemon was aloud in the region, but all the same Volkner hoped Garret wouldn't tell.

"Looking forward to meeting the next gym leader Volk?" Volkner now raised his glare level with the other man. Garret seemed to have a knack of getting under people's skins with the most polite words. Which irritated Volkner even more because that meant he had no intelligent come back.

"Yes and no. Yes because I want to get a move on and no because that means I'll probably have to walk through more of this filthy mud."

The pair walked for while longer as the ground gradually grew more and more dry. After the first few blades of grass started to appear, Garret stopped and turned around.

"Well here you are. The next gym. Oh, and don't tell anyone that I helped you. That would be bad seeing as I was told rather directly 'Don't help Volkner unless he's about to be eaten'. Yup, well goodbye." And with that, he strummed a few chords and his Scizor whisked him off to unknown lands. It was an odd exit compared to the fact that Volkner was used to see people riding _on_ the pokemon instead of in their arms/claws, but then again, it coincided with the odd entrance.

Glancing ahead, Volkner saw that there was a small (slightly yellow) dirt path carved out in front of him. Volkner was so happy that it wasn't mushy, he started humming 'Wizard of Oz' songs.

**Four weeks later. On the road to the fifth gym. – Unknown Region**

"So yer Volkner eh? Behn hearin a lot 'bout ya, and ahm all coiled up like a spring rabbit readeh to hop. The name's Gallviston. Nope just kiddin with ya son. That's the name of this here town. The name's Dynamite Rassler. And I can't wait ta battle with ya." Those words still rung loud and clear in Volkner's head long after their battle (it was hard not to, 'Rassler' was extremely loud and exhuberant). The man dressed like a cowboy, wearing long chaps and cowboy boots. He was well built with lots of muscle, tan skin, and shaggy brown haired which was partially hidden under his wide brimmed, mud-brown, cowboy hat. But the thing that struck Volkner the most were his striking cobalt eyes. Such an odd color, especially for someone so obsessed with the color brown. The man also reminded him of Clay, one of the gyms leaders from Unova region. Except for the fact that Dynamite looked like he'd been in plenty of fights in his life and won most of them, taking away only a broken nose and a good life lesson. Whereas Clay had just been accused of embezzlement. Clay was also on the heavy side and short, whereas Dynamite was skinny and about 6'2.

The battle had been intense, with that man using a steel/ground-type Volkner had never seen before. It was a dirt brown feline with a shaggy, course coat and a wrecking ball at the end of its tail. He called it a Ferocifox when he sent it out, and ferocious it was. The blonde had been forced to use Lanturn against it, and the lantern-fish had nearly lost. Next it was an oversized Rhydon and a massively built Golem that had bulldozed down his pokemon. Volkner barely scraped by with a win. Lanturn had been taken out in the second round by Rhydon's take down, and it took the whole rest of his team to bring the final one down. Only Luxray was left standing, it's Crunch being the decisive move which had managed to find the only sweet spot in Golem's hulking mass.

The walk to the next town wasn't too long, and ended in a town called Mull City. The young woman there introduced herself as Starburst. She had long red hair and emerald green eyes to go with a healthy physic. Volkner couldn't help but admire. Starburst wasn't as tough as Dynamite had been using only fire types, which didn't fare so well against his Lanturn. The battle had gone fine, her first two consisting of familiars such as Arcanine and Rapidash. It was the third and final one that gave Volkner a run for his money. The pokemon was a scarlet color and gave of smoke from vents in its back. The thing resembled an enormous frog that came up to his shoulder. It had flicked it tongue out to moisten its eye and molten lava had spilled to the floor, leaving a sizzling hole in the concrete floor. Volkner's adrenaline had spiked as the thing loomed over the arena. The blond had strategized well, keeping his pokemon at a distance and using long range attacks, though the thing could periodically fire out lava flows from its mouth.

The gym leader had been nice, informing him that after this gym, he only had four more battles due to the 'Twins' combing for their role as gym leaders.

The next town was called Dreariville, as the dilapidate sign haphazardly shoved into the ground informed him. Then again, if the name fits… As Volkner trudged through the town, doors slammed and windows closed. It took him awhile to locate the pokemon center, but when he did, it was a nice piece of normalcy, despite being slightly run down.

"Well, hello! You're a new face here! Is there something you need, besides your pokemon healed?" The Nurse looked just like the Joys in other regions, except this one was in an all black uniform.

"Ya, actually. I was wondering what you could tell me about the upcoming gym leaders in this town." Joy gave him an apprehensive look.

"Here to face the gym leaders? Poor dear. Well, they're identical twins who are so powerful together, that before now, they were required to be separate gym leaders. Their names are Curious and Enigma, and they specialize mostly in ghost and dark type pokemon. I'd handle them carefully if I were you." And with that the nurse rushed off as if frightened. Volkner sighed and rested his back against the counter, resigned to wait for the nurse to reappear. Glancing towards the doors, there was a rather large shape outlined against the window pane.

The bells above the door gave a valiant effort to cling as they were disturbed when the door was shouldered open. The poor things barely rattled as they were thrown out of the way, jerking on their string. The figure that stepped through the door was rather intimidating. He was tall and broad, extremely well muscled, and screamed dangerous and confident from every pore. All of Volkner's alarm bells started ringing in full alert as the man stepped closer, his work boots scuffing the floor. This man had a cowboy hat on, but unlike Dynamite's, it looked brand new, and was a jet black. The gold material of his western shirt was stretched to the max as he crossed his arms over his chest. His eyes were black, piercing, and critical as they gave the electric-user a once over, clearly dissatisfied.

"So, you're the new recruit." The man's voice was gruff and rumbly and extremely deep. If Volkner had been any less of a man he would have been frightened.

"Depends on who you're talking about. But ya, I'm trying to become a gym leader here." Volkner look back at him with absolutely no fear in his eyes, as if he were bored of this man already. It was the classic male stare down, complete with the narrowing of the eyes and flaring of the nostrils. If it would have been any less of a serious situation, Nurse Joy would have laughed.

"Not if I have anything to say about it. I heard you were in the area and decided to see you for myself. Too bad you didn't even meet up to the low expectation I had for you." And with that, the man snorted and stalked out.

"Well that was unexpected. I was actually kind of hoping you two would start a fight." Volkner glanced over, a little disturbed that the champion was sitting against the wall reading a newspaper and drinking coffee all without him noticing.

**Sunnyshore City- Sinnoh**

"So Maybelene, have any challengers lately?" 'Kronos' asked. They were in the park, it was hot, and the ridiculous wig Saturn had to wear was itching like crazy. But he was doing it for Master Cyrus.

"Um, kind of. But they were too hard. Like this one girl beat me because her pokemon were too cute for mine to hurt. And another kid beat me because…." And on and on and on. Saturn/Kronos had to wonder how drunk the pokemon league members were. They had to be downright wasted when they picked this chick over Volkner. Plus she probably used twice as much electricity as Volkner on her hair appliances alone. '_This is going to be a long day…'_

**Sinnoh HQ- Sinnoh**

Flint was downright drunk. He'd had so many shots of vodka he didn't know up from down anymore. Which in truth, was really bad, because he normally didn't ever drink aside from the occasional weekend beer. His job had always demanded too much. But the guilt was tearing him apart. Literally. Recently, whenever he got sidetracked on Volkner he had headaches (which of course would be constantly). But the really bizarre thing was that it was mostly when he got sidetracked on _Will_ that he got headaches so overwhelming that he could barely make it through them. Which made him feel worse, because he should be feeling worse about Volkner rather than Will.

The headache was returning again, slowly building intensity. It would start right above his eyes and slowly spread to the rest of his head a constant swelling pain. Somedays, the red-head would be driven to near insanity by the pain. But perhaps he deserved it for everything he'd done. Perhaps it was his punishment…

**Unknown Location**

Karen would have felt bad for Flint if she could have. Honestly. But she couldn't, because she couldn't think. Move. Anything. She was nothing but a puppet on a string under Will's control. For the longest time, before he gained full control of her mind, she had had conscious thought. Being able to move, run, jump, dance, anything. Not that she'd done all that, but at least she'd had the option. But now Will's powers were growing. He could do more. Control more.

At the same time though, it wasn't Will. Wasn't Will that she cared for. The Will she knew. This was someone who had taken control. Almost like a split personality that finally taken the reigns. In a way, Koga was going to get the powerful league member he'd always wanted from Will. Just not in the way he wanted.

**Dreariville- Unknown Region**

The pokemon center's dim lights reflected softly off the Champion, muting her black outfit and allowing her to partially blend in with the shadows. She smiled at him as if there were some sort of inside joke at play.

"So, how's it going?" Her eyes told him she knew everything that had happened since they had parted company. The blond just sighed and shook his head.

"Something tells me you're fully aware of 'how it's going'. Thanks for the map by the way." That made the champion grin.

"Oh Volkner, don't be such a killjoy. Garret thought it was quite funny. Actually, the map was pretty accurate; you were just holding it upside down." The grin spread even farther across her face, and Volkner was wondering if it was possible for her to smile even wider.

"I don't think so…" He was pretty sure he'd gone the right way, according to the map.

"Well I do. See, instead of going left around the rather large rock, you should have gone right, which would have taken you to the main road. Instead you decided to have a wonderful time traversing the marsh. But it's okay, because that's all behind you. What I'm here for is something much different. I need to tell you a little bit about what you're up against." Volkner frowned. He doubted it would be that much of a problem. He'd faced dark and ghost type pokemon before. They were tough, but they could be beat.

"You see Volkner, it's not just the pokemon you need to worry about, but also the trainers. There a little…crazy. And that crazy makes them extremely erratic. Together they're a force to be reckoned with. They're pokemon are experts at double battling. One will create shadows while the other jumps out of them. And they don't just jump out at your pokemon. In this battle you'll be at risk just as much as your pokemon." Moonshadow was serious now, not a bit of humor showing on her face.

"Why is it that you let them do that?" If they were that uncontrollable shouldn't they be removed from their position?

"In a region that's constantly having problems with terrorists and deadly criminal organizations, they're crucial in defending the citizens. And in that aspect they're extremely dependable, and a heck of a lot stronger as a duo than alone. At the moment, the only weak link in the league is Molly, but that area has a veteran battler that takes care of all the problems that come up. I want you to know, if you decide to take the job, you'll be taking it upon yourself to perform the same duties. At the moment, you have three people after the twins. Skylaria, and expert on flying pokemon, Cirruicuse, who you just met and commands a team of normal-type pokemon, and the eighth gym leader who will use the same type of pokemon you send against her. You have a lot to fight through, but hang in there, you can do it." The champion stood up and the shadows at her feet shifted to reveal her Umbreon.

"Um, thanks. So any advice for this gym coming up?" She smiled and brushed the dirt of his shoulder.

"Just remember what your dad has pounded into your head all these years." And with that, she slipped through the door and disappeared down the street. Volkner shook his head. The people of this region were strange. It bothered Volkner more than a little that she even knew who his father was, let alone what 'had been pounded into his head.' His dad was nothing but a sadistic criminal who enjoyed inflicting pain on others. Probably why he'd worked so closely with Koga and Sabrina when he was involved more actively in Team Rocket.

After taking his pokemon back from Nurse Joy, Volkner trudged off towards the forest to train. There was more door slamming. They people of this town obviously didn't care whether or not they were being rude. Volkner watched the rocks skittering in front of his feet as he walked through the cobbled, dirty streets. He could sense eyes on him as the people of the houses glared out at him for disturbing their solitude. In front of him, he could see the forest, pitch black in most spots where the foliage was so tightly packed and the cobwebs so finely strung that no light could penetrate. As the he neared the edge someone behind him chided,

"I wouldn't go in there if I were you." Flipping around in a 180, Volkner saw that person was a man of about his age with shockingly white hair that was sticking straight up and parted in a V shape. He was in a punk rocker outfit of all black with neon pink faux fur around the collar. There was an electric guitar strapped to his back.

"And why not?" By now, Volkner was getting really tired of all these strange people giving him random advice that he didn't really appreciate.

"Cus my little bro Garret asked me to make sure you didn't do anything stupid. And walking into the forest would be stupid." The man sneered at him.

"I take it Garret finally found his lost siblings." The punk stopped leaning on the dilapidated wall of the building behind him to get up and put himself between Volkner and the eerily calm forest.

"Well, duh. Haven't you ever heard of a cell phone stupid? If you're looking for training, look no further, cus I'm pretty sure I'll beat your useless pokemon into useless pulp." Volkner clenched his fists, offended from the remarks against his pokemon and his intelligence.

"Looking for a fight punk? I'm not world's best person to screw with. You'll find I have a rather short temper." The other man just rolled his eyes, shifting his stance to swing the guitar off his back.

"The name's Billy. Of the Go-Rock Quads. A name once heard and never forgotten. So don't forget it. I must admit, I'm rather unimpressed. Lil' Garret must have been mistaken in your potential. But do you wanna fight or what?" Volkner de-minimized his pokeball and sent out Luxray.

"Predictable. Don't you have any tricks up your sleeve?" The pokeball that Billy took out was a dark grey with pink stars to match his outfit. The pokemon that materialized from the red light was a colossal Tyrannitar.

"Why the heck are all the pokemon here so big?"

"It's called genetics and training stupid."

**Elite Four HQ- Indigo Plateau**

"You know Koga I was thinking…" Lance started.

"A dangerous pastime, that." Koga interrupted, not even looking up from his newspaper.

"Stop quoting 'Ranger's Apprentice' books please. Anyways, if Volkner built all those solar panels from scratch, and constructed a place to store the power…how is it that it was Volkner's fault the city was having power outages? Without him, would the city even have power?" Koga blinked, looked confused, and shook his head. Some things were best left alone.

"Get your shoes off the table."

"I win." Bruno rolled his eyes and passed Lance a twenty.

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Yay, writer's block is not a fun thing. I'd like to apologize to Lv100Meganium who told me they'd beta this, but I have yet to send a chapter...I always feel bad because it takes me so long to produce a chapter.

I tried to end on a happier note, rather than a serious one like it was before I added a lot of stuff. =D

Let me know what you thought of it. Any suggestions would be well appreciated!


	4. Chapter 4

****Wow, look, I'm not dead. I can't believe that it's been two years since the last update. It just blows me away. You have my sincerest apology. My life's been pretty crazy, but that's still no excuse. As an apology, this chapter is nearly twice the length of a normal chapter. My writing style has changed a little bit as you'll probably notice, since the first bit was written two years ago (though I did go through and edit most of it). I tried to catch all my errors (as I went back and read all my old chapters and realized I made a startling amount of mistake o.O), but if I haven't, feel free to point them out to me :D

Anyway, here's the chapter! I hope you enjoy it!

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**Deariville- Unknown Region**

The battle didn't start off too well for Volkner. Luxray's electric and dark attacks didn't do much damage against the well fortified Tyranitar. But while Billy was gloating, Volkner switched to Lanturn and blasted the surprised ground-type. Now it was Billy's turn to be peeved.

"You know what? It's not polite to attack during gloating. Who does that? It's like attacking during a flashback, you just don't do it. It's social unacceptable." Billy wrinkled his nose at the blond.

"Attack during a flashback? Really? What is this, a kid's cartoon?" Volkner quirked an eyebrow.

"How should I know, alternate dimensions and all that crap. But haven't you watch TV shows? They have flashbacks, but no one attacks them while they do even though they take like fifteen minutes. So it's obviously an unwritten rule." Billy strummed a few notes on his guitar and ordered Tyranitar to use slash. Lanturn just spouted out a water gun in the face, once again startling it.

"Get it together Tyranitar, sheesh. It's, what, like a bucket of water? Come on, you can do it. Earthquake." The ground under Volkner's feet heaved and bucked as the Tyranitar slammed its foot down to create seismic activity.

"Lanturn Hydropump!"

"Intensify the quake and throw off its aim." Billy was coping well with the contortions of the earth, but Volkner couldn't keep his balance any longer and feel to the ground. Dirt and loose bricks started to shake from the dilapidated wall behind him.

"What are you two creeps doing?" The voice was eerie and venomous, but strangely childlike. Volkner swiveled his head around to see a small girl with dark blue eyes glimmering with a cruelty akin to a serial eviscerator. With the combination between her complexion and stature, it looked as if she had just crawled out of a horror movie. Her hair created a black hole effect with the light, standing slightly on end as if eletrified. At the moment she was dressed in an unoffending dark blue shirt and even darker blue-jeans. But her manner belied something more sinister. That was Volkner's cue to scrabble to his feet and hope to be unnoticed, brushing his pants of as he did so.

"Battling, duh. It's not that difficult to figure out." Billy, Volkner decided, clearly had none of the natural self-preservation mechanisms normal humans were equipped with.

"We can see that, thank you Captain Obvious." There was another girl on the other side of them that was almost identical, aside from the fact that instead of blue, her eyes were a dark purple with a matching purple shirt. A hazy dark spot floated just above her shoulder.

"Then why'd ya ask if you already knew the answer? That's not too intelligent." The two girls rolled their eyes simultaneously.

"You're lucky we know you're brother," the blue Grudge girl threatened.

_~"Otherwise we might have to cure you of your insolence."~ _As blue suddenly appeared next to her twin to speak in unison the temperature dropped at least ten degrees, and Volkner felt a chilling power sweep over him, causing him to shiver.

"Then again we still might." Purple added with a sweet voice that contrasted sharply against her sadistic grin and her head cocked to the side. They then turned to appraise Volkner.

"Oh, hello little challenger. I'm Curious. And my purple eyed sister is Enigma. Unless you chicken out like so many do, you'll be battling us."

_~"We hope you come, it's been a while since we've had any fun."~_ The two started laughing maniacally and disappeared in another chilling breeze.

"Talk about loco en la cabasa. Sheez, I think they just beat Garret in melodramatics. So where were we?" Billy asked, seemingly unfazed by their sudden disappearance.

"Err, flashbacks."

"Oh ya. You just don't attack in one of those," Billy seemed to notice something above Volkner's head and widened his eyes. "Erm, dude, you may want to…brush off your head." Volkner reached up and was about to ask why, when he felt something brush against his hand. With a startled yelp, he smacked it only to have a rather large, and angry, spider land in front of him. Instincts kicked in, and Volkner sent the thing flying.

"Dude, how many pokemon are you going to kick while you're here?"

**Unknown Area- Johto**

The people of the regions were really quite stupid. Maybe not so much here, but definitely in Sinnoh. New Will couldn't count all the idiotic people that inhabited _that_ region. It was especially bad when that many inexperienced people managed to work their way into the league. The child Roark had a narrow vision on the world that consisted solely of rocks. Gardenia was morbidly frightened of the dark and ghosts, which contrasted against her love of forests. The other child Maylene had training in martial arts, but was naïve to how cruel the world really was. 'Crasher Wake' was more obsessed with his deluded dreams of being a wrestling star that the dark world around him was slowly destroying his city. The woman Fatina could barely speak the language, and was a classic narcissist. Byron was fairly intelligent, but because of this, refused to leave his city, instead pretending that it was a separate world. The girl Candice was far too obsessed in her 'schooling' to embrace through experience and discover what it truly was. A nightmare. And finally the replacement gym leader Maybelene was an ignoramus hardly having more than two brain cells.

The 'terrifying' criminal organization of the area was a joke. They're goal of a 'new world' was not only misguided, but completely misinformed _(perhaps they were never informed to begin with. After all, who's to say what we're told that true and untrue?)_.

And finally the Elite Four of the region were overrated. The members were so ridiculously…_easy (what kind of word is that? It's a perspective yes, but it effects the way a person views everything)_, that anywhere else, they wouldn't even have made gym trainee. Bug boy Aaron was obsessed with his image and living in a false world. The old woman Bertha had nothing in her line-up that could even make an impression on anyone. The so called psychic Lucian was nothing but a quack and so obsessed with his precious books that he had no time to think for himself. Cynthia was conceited, useless. Even worse was that red-headed afro…_freak._ (_Freak, what a delightful word. Old Will never would even have had it in his repertoire. Old Will was a useless pushover, a doormat for his fellow Elites to toss under the bus. Now New Will was a force to reckon with!_)

It may have been an overly cynical view, but this alternate personality of Will was overly cynical. He was also prone to going off mentally on random tangents.

New Will looked at Karen through his mind's eye. He had left her at the league while he went off to muse. It would look too suspicious if he were to start going everywhere with Karen. And he wasn't ready to handle Lance knowing about him yet. He had the Power, but Lance had the Will. And associates that would notice the slightest mental disturbance in him. He had yet to devise a way to hide his presence, but he would. Oh he would. Perhaps he could practice on Koga?

Old Will started screaming and pleading in his little cage in the back of their shared conscience. Apparently he didn't like it when his friends were threatened. New Will had nearly lost the reins when had completely pulled Karen into his thrall. The fool loved _(Love, what a silly idea. Dependence on others was foolish. But this was loved, past tense of love. Of course, with Old Will forever in the backseat, that wouldn't even pose a problem)_ her, and threw a fit so loud it gave New Will a headache. The threats subsided into pleas after Karen was made to stand precariously atop the balcony overlooking the cliff.

**Dreariville – Unknown Region**

For the next two weeks Volkner set a rigorous training schedule. Though at first, Billy had and the surrounding wild pokemon had completely trounced him in battle (Volkner had eventually just resigned himself to being covered in muck), the blond was finally on equal footing. All of his pokemon had grown exponentially, and he'd even managed to catch a little electric-type. The little guy (or girl as Billy had seen fit to inform him a few days afterwards) was an electric yellow chick and still had its down feathers. The jokster had asked him if he caught it just to kick when he was feeling frustrated.

"I can't remember a time when I've ever trained this hard." Volkner said as he sat down with a sigh. His pokemon were far too tired to go on without a rest, and in truth, he was too.

"Ya, I can't imagine so. But this should be perfect for you since you're the weirdo that always wants to lose."

"I do not!" At this Luxray snorted and Volkner shot her a glare as Billy grinned triumphantly.

"Ha see. Normal people don't get depressed when they win, they get cocky. You on the other hand go sulk. I saw it when I vacationed in Sunyshore. Just accept the fact that you're an angsty teenager." The blond just flipped him the bird and layed down pretending to sleep.

"And you tell me I'm not classy."

**Elite Four Headquarters- Sinnoh Region**

Flint had lost every battle for the past two weeks, and Lucian had finally maxed out his patience. The redhead was in his room nursing a beer and pondering if the tweleve over the counter pain killers that he had taken for his headache would kill him. Just as he was making the effort to haul himself off the couch to ask the internet, something very heavy and very solid collided with his head, thankfully softened by his afro.

"Ow… What the?! Who the heck just threw this... whatever it is at my head?" He'd rubbed his head, thinking he could feel a dent in his afro.

"That's a book you fool! Now I'm sick and tired of your moping. Get on with your life and go do something productive! I've had it up to here with facing hordes of unskilled trainers because you can't get your act together." Lucian's face had turned a rather unseemly shade of burgundy while he was ranting, and Flint had to wonder if he had gotten enough oxygen.

"Well you know, if they got past Aaron and Bertha, they obviously aren't all that bad…" Flint ducked just in time to avoid the lamp that Lucian had thrown at his head.

"Get. Your Act. Together." And with that, the psychic trainer turned heel and stormed out.

_'Aie, aie, aie. That man should have been a fire-type trainer.'_ Then again, Flint was glad he wasn't, because then he'd be out of a job. Not that it really mattered much anymore. Bending over with a sigh, Flint saw that title to the book that his head had been introduced to was

_Friendships Gone Wrong and How to Pick up the Pieces_, by a Dr. C. Nile.

"Hehe, C. Nile, Senile, I see what he's done there." Flint drunkenly stumbled over the couch and dropped the book, which fell open to a chapter titled: **Mending Broken Bromances.** After looking at the book as if it had suddenly come from the world of Harry Potter and was moving of its own volition, Flint glared at the door. Lucian had to have been behind this somehow. Nevertheless, Flint plopped down on the floor and proceeded to read the chapter, then flipped to the front page of the book and started from there.

**Elite Four Headquarters – Johto**

Will cringed as the thing that was masquerading as him spoke with Lance. The empath wasn't sure if he wanted Lance to figure out it wasn't him or not. On one hand, he may be able to get him help. On the other, he didn't know whether or not Lance's mind would be able to hold back that overwhelming psychic power this…other him possessed. He could only assume that this alternate personality had developed when he was in the care of the Mask of Ice. He still didn't know most of what happened when the Mask would render him unconscious.

Still, he held onto a shred of hope that he could figure a way out himself. Sometimes at night he was able to take back control of his body for short periods of time. During this period he would often check on Karen who didn't seem to receive a respite, even in sleep. This only fueled Will's ambition, but he had to be careful about showing it. It wouldn't do for the Other to find out that he still had power enough to slip through its control. But in that same sense, if this entity had to wait until he was nearly dead to take over, then perhaps Will could overpower it with similar conditions. But of course this was the time when Koga decided to lay off…

_'Speaking, well thinking, of Koga, he's had to of noticed by now.'_ The Other paused shortly in his conversation, and Will shrunk back in his psychic cage relaxing only when It returned to the conversation. Luckily for Will, most of his thoughts were shielded from the other's prying gaze, but he still had to think quietly. Moving back to his ponderings, Will decided that Koga had in fact noticed, the only question was had he not done anything because: A) he wasn't sure the course of action to take or B) because he preferred the new, more volatile Will? Dejected, Will could only determine that is was option B given Koga's previous track record. He really had gotten Koga to accept him more of late though. Much better than it had been before…

_Koga had been standing in Will's room when the psychic had first entered. The man continued to stare out the window as Will shifted nervously from foot to foot._

_"Um, my name's Wi—"_

_"I know what your name is." The ninja didn't even twitch._

_"Ur, um. Okay. Well it's nice to meet you—" Once again Will was cut off, but this time, his feet were suddenly dangling nearly a foot of the ground and oxygen was having trouble reaching his panicked mind as Koga gripped him by the throat._

_"How do you expect to survive in the field?"_

For Will's first few weeks as a member of the Elite Four, he knew he and Karen were being appraised, assessed, and filed under different categories by the older man. He tried, he really did, but he still couldn't sway Koga from his initial opinion. When Lance and Karen were around, the abuse was minimal and only when the ninja thought it was safe. Otherwise, both times that Koga's injuries were serious enough to put him in the hospital, were blamed on Team Rocket.

Yes, there would be no help from Koga or Karen, so Will shrunk back dejected and decided that for now he would watch and wait.

**Elite Four Headquarters – Sinnoh Region**

"What?!" Cynthia's jaw was skimming her desk it had dropped so far, something Flint found rather unattractive. He had burst into her office earlier ranting and raving about some sort of book by a senile doctor that had spoken to him about Bromance that had all culminated into this.

"Yup, I'm using all my vacation days, which is about four months."

"You can't just leave! We'll have to close down! What about the challengers waiting for you?"

"Done. Beat them all today." Flint grinned. It was amazing what he could do when he set his mind to it. Beating them all had been a thank you to Lucian for triggering his epiphany.

"And so your idea is what? Run off into the sunset after an ex-best friend who's already made it perfectly clear that he wants nothing to do with you?" By now Cynthia had pulled out her business voice and was now trying to hit all the areas where it hurt the worst. Much to Flint's credit, he didn't so much as flinch.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. Well, maybe not the sunset, I think the region east of here, and the sun sets in the west and all, but I need to show Volkner that our friendship means something!"

"Any idea how much trouble I went through to get you them to let you stay in the league? We're just lucky that Lucian didn't have any cameras in his bedroom, otherwise Koga's accusations would have actually stuck." Trump card. Flint winced internally. He still hadn't got Will an apology gift yet… After Volkner though. One thing at a time.

"Ya, but you wouldn't want to go up to them now and tell them that you'd lied to them. And legally, as a league member you can't deny me a vacation. It'd be a nice excuse for the rest of you too!" Cynthia clenched her jaw, mind going into overdrive. Flint danced from foot to foot while he waited. He was both anxious and nervous for not only her answer, but the trip to come. Either way, he was leaving.

"Fine. But in exactly four months from tomorrow, you had better be back and ready to go at full speed." Flint was out the door a moment later.

**Haunted Forest, Dreariville – Unknown Region**

"Alright Blondie, time for the last step. You have to be just as ready as your pokemon!" And with that, Billy swiped Volkner's belt. The blond's swipe was a little too late to reclaim his stolen possession.

"Hey! What're you doing?" Volkner tensed, extremely uneasy without his pokemon. Luxray, the only one out of the pokeball growled. She'd grown enormously from all the training, but Volkner still doubted that she be able to completely overpower Billy. He did have other pokemon up his sleeves.

"Your pokemon may, and the key word here is may, be ready, but that doesn't mean you are. We're going to find a pokemon that doesn't spew flames or acid, and you're going to beat it. Hands only." Volkner fixed Billy with his signature deadpan.

"I thought you said your canteen didn't have alcohol in it." Billy rolled his eyes, flipped a switch on his guitar, and strummed a few chords. Soon enough there was a low rumble from the undergrowth and a Mightyena materialized from the undergrowth. Snarling at Volkner it crouched down low, hackles raised, and let out a snarl. Volkner reflexively reach for a pokeball, but to no avail. Luxray howled as Tyranitar held it back from helping her master. One final snarl and the dark type pounced, teeth aimed right for Volkner's jugular.

**Elite Four Headquarters – Johto**

New Will reached out his senses, turning his mind's eye to Old Will, who was currently trying to keep his thoughts together (_how amusing. There was no gether singularly, but with a form of two, the word could make sense. Except how then could you hold more than two things gether?) _after New Will sent a wave of power towards his section of their shared conscious thoughts. Lance was sharp and had spent the rest of the conversation carefully scrutinizing him. He couldn't afford to be interrupted again. Not before he was ready. Not before his plan was in motion. With that thought in mind, N. Will reached out his powers to pester the afro-ed freak. It was so fun to watch him squirm. He got to his area and…

Nothing.

The fire type trainer was out of reach, probably on a boat judging by his psychic trail.

A wave of angry power ripped through the room, upending all the furniture in a chaotic upheaval. The sound was muffled by the psychic's power, but Koga still witnessed everything from his hiding place. With a sad shake of his head, he disappeared to find out just what had enraged the psychic so much.

**Haunted Forest, Dreariville – Unknown Region**

Volkner was thrown to the ground from the force of the leap, but kept the Mightyena's mouth from closing in on his throat by reflexively nailing it in the jaw with his elbow. Its teeth snapped closed about an inch from his throat. The blond's jacket held back the worst of the claws, but the wolf pokemon was close to 100 pounds, twenty over its normal weight class. Volkner pushed his forearm into the wolf's throat, forcing it to ease up or have its air supply cut off. Using the backwards momentum to his advantage, Volkner brought his legs up under its chest and threw it off. The two rolled to their feet, judging the other's movements. Seemingly decided on its next course of action, the dark type pounced again, but this time, Volkner dodged out of the way. He maneuvered around the pokemon, jumping himself, so that its back was resting on his chest and his arms had the beast in a headlock, pulling it to the ground in the process. The dark wolf attempted to roll, but the electric user rolled with it, refusing to be shaken off.

Tightening up his hold, Volkner managed to choke Mightyena into unconsciousness, but not before catching a stray shot from one of its paws across the side of the head. After he was sure the pokemon wouldn't be getting up anytime soon, Volkner climbed off the wolf, his breathing heavy and his skin torn from the claws. Billy was looking at him with a dumbfound expression.

"Well I see that Lt. Surge taught you well. That was a little… unexpected. I didn't think anyone from Sinnoh knew how to fight." Volkner narrowed his eyes at the mention of his dad.

"Ya, sure. How did you summon that Mightyena with just your guitar?" If even instruments from this reason could beckon beast from the bush (Flint would have laughed at that one) then he probably needed to know.

"Oh that? Um, we used to pester the Pokemon Rangers in another region, so Garret equipped me and my sibling's instruments with capture stylers. Together we make the Go-Rock Quads," Billy grinned like an idiot. "Anyways, let's get you back to the pokemon center and cleaned up. You're a mess." Volkner snorted, and started to move. Luxray finally released from the Tyranitar's grip, ran up to her master to rub against his leg before delivering a parting shock to the defeated Mightyena, before turning the electricity on Billy. Tyranitar sheepishly scratch the back of its head as Billy gave him an accusatory glare.

**-Later-**

Volkner was in his room washing up, while Billy waited in the lobby in one of the chairs. It was only a few minutes before someone sat down next to him.

"Do you think he's really ready?" Billy glanced over at Garret and saw a touch of anxiety in his expressive eyes.

"Don't worry a bit little bro. I don't think he'll get himself killed too badly."

"Billy you do realize that most deaths are pretty bad right?" Billy snorted.

"Shut up, Garret. Plus if you're that worried, just go supervise the match."

"Love you too, Billy, and I might just do that. Thanks." And with that he was gone.

**Elite Headquarters – Johto**

The Other was finally asleep. He'd vented a vast majority of his psychic energy tearing apart the room and then putting it back together repeatedly. Will reached out tentatively, making sure that his unwanted guest was still asleep. As was his nightly ritual, he attempted to summon the same destructive energy that the Other seemed to be able to wield freely, but to no avail. With a shake of his head, Will slipped quietly out of bed to make his way down the hall towards Karen's room. Luckily, the Other hadn't had much contact with her today, and the less contact the two had, the better chance the Karen had of surviving this ordeal untouched.

The empath was about two thirds of the way there when he felt someone projecting, strongly. _Worry. Unrest. Confusion. Hurt. Fear._ And… _Caring._ Perhaps it was pokemon knew that this was a wing close to Koga's, so it was this was a possible solution. Koga would almost never project, except for anger, but when he did show other emotions, it was almost always in regard to his pokemon or his daughter, Janine.

He stopped to scan the shadows in the direction of the projections, and saw what could very well be Koga's spiky hair. Will backed up, genuinely frightened. If Koga decided this was the night to instruct him on the brutality of Team Rocket, then the Other would know. He'd kill Koga and then there would no more nightly escapades for Will.

Koga's emotions switch strongly to confusion and worry as he stepped out of the shadows.

"Will?" His voice was strangely tentative, as if not sure quite sure who he was speaking to. So he did know! Yet as of yet he'd done nothing! At least for Karen's sake… Koga must have sensed his frustrations, because his emotions quickly shifted to suspicion and his gaze hardened as he advanced towards the purple haired psychic. Much to his dismay, he let out a small squeak, and turned heel the other way as fast as possible. Ninjas are fast, but Koga was the Chuck Norris of ninjas, appearing in front of him in a breeze.

"Where are you going?" Will's eyes widened behind his mask in fear of what was to come. As his breathing quickened, his previously broken ribs cried out in protest, and he shank to his knees, with Koga slowing his decent. Emotions shifted strongly to concern. Almost so much that it was unbearable. This must be some act to make him drop his defenses; there no way Koga could ever be worried about him.

"Will? Are you alright? Is it really…you?" Uncertainty didn't suit Koga, yet at the same time it was…nice.

"Yes. Yes to both." Will whispered, still gasping for breath. The ninja seemed to visibly relax, and now Will could see just how tired he looked, with dark circles under his eyes.

"What in Lugia's name is going on in that head of yours?" Koga had by then stopped projecting and had summoned a hard edge back into his voice.

"It's a long story and I don't have all the pieces myself, but what I do know is that you have to lay low and not let on that you know. The Other…well me I guess, but it's not me. Alternate personality I guess, well he…took control. Karen fell under his thrall already, and there's nothing I can do to help her. There has to be some way for me to regain control, but…I'm just not strong enough." As Will gave Koga a run down on what was happening, he tried to gauge his thoughts. Honestly, projecting Koga was preferable to neutral Koga. Will was sure that his weakness was being harshly judged, but now, he just needed someone, _anyone_, to talk to.

"I can take control sometimes at night though, when it's completely out like now. He expended a vast amount of power because Flint is too far away to torment…" Will sighed, looking away. Koga still wasn't showing any reaction. Perhaps it would have been better not talking with the man. So with a shiver and a fast goodbye, Will ghosted back to bed, claiming that the Other could wake up at any moment.

The poison type user sat crouched on the floor for the next while, too shocked to move. All the while, Koga still wasn't quite sure what to think of the situation. Will was obviously in pain, from the injuries and from whatever this alternate personality was doing to him. On the other hand, to act would make them both good as dead. With a sigh, Koga ran a hand threw his hair and stood up, walking to his bedroom. He felt so…useless. A feeling completely foreign to him, along with this new feeling of self blame. Granted, he was the one that got Will to the hospital, but did that excuse the years of abuse? No. Not at all. With another long suffering sigh, Koga flopped onto his bed. Perhaps sleep would bring the answers.

**Haunted Forest, Deariville - Unknown Region**

Billy threw a stick at Volkner's head.

"Ow, what the heck was that for?"

"If you can dodge a stick you can dodge a shadow ball. Five D's of Dodging: Dip, Duck, Dodge, Dive, and Dodge." Volkner deadpanned and rolled his eyes, walking off.

"It'll come in handy! Luck of the Irish and all!" Volkner flipped him the bird over his back.

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Just to let you know, I genuinely went online to look up how to wrestle a wolf. It seemed difficult.

In other news, I now have most of the stuff about Will over with for now, so I'll finally be able to shift a majority of the attention back over to Volkner and Flint. I'm super excited to write their scene. Which brings me to this, I know it's been awhile since I've written anything, and I probably understand that a majority of my previous readers have probably left, but if even one person says they're still reading this, then I'll keep writing. Hopefully faster.

If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to (please) drop a review or a PM, and I will be happy to answer your questions! Thank you so much!


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